The reader must understand that each of these lines has to do duty for what in the original is a train of argument running sometimes to several pages. It will be seen that each of the successive digressions is further removed from the original thought, until the discussion on the origin of idolatry represented by the fourth line stands three degrees distant from the argument of the opening line; then the argument returns on its steps, each of the previous digressions is resumed and concluded, and the first line of thought is recovered. It may be added that, once the key to the arrangement is caught, the points of junction in the text will be seen to be clearly marked; and the whole complex of thought gives the impression of symmetry and finish. The portion of the text represented by this second scheme (from xi. 15 to xvi. 4) is too long to quote in full, but I give a condensation, indented so as to bring out the digressive subordination. References are inserted indicating the exact point at which each digression leads off. Appetite (it is argued, though the argument is not apparent until after the close of the digressions in xvi. 4) is one of the things in reference to which the enemy was punished, and the righteous nation benefited. The Egyptians suf fered a plague of VERMIN. Note: Vermin on vermin-worshippers (xi. 16): by what things a man sinneth, by these he is punished. The choice of that punishment in kind over all other modes of punishment evidences the mercy of the omnipotent lover of lives (such a reminder to the sinner being part of his way of convicting little by little, as when hornets were sent upon the Canaanites before the final destroyers came). God's sovereignty over all makes him forbearing to all; teaching his people to be lovers of men, and giving them hope in the time of their own chastisement. The Egyptians were justly chastised with their own abominations, because they were so far gone in the FOLLY OF IDOLATRY. For all idolatry is folly (xiii. 1): to see God's works, and not recognise the Creator. Least blameable are those who mistake the heavenly bodies or beautiful works of nature for God (though, knowing so much, these might have known more). But miserable indeed are those who rest their hopes in dead things: gold, silver, useless stone, or even refuse of a tree carved in an idle hour into a god; the workman prayeth all help from this which is in all things helpless: accursed idolater that turns what God has created into CORRUPTION. For idolatry is a corruption of life (xiv. 12), and not one of the things which have been from the beginning. Origin of idela try: perhaps an image of a lost child, honoured with rites, that afterwards grow into a law. Or, an image of a king, made for flattery in his absence, forced by the art of the artificer into a beauty that in time draws worship: thus stocks and stones become invested with the incommunicable Name. Moral corruption follows: the conflict within the idolaters' hearts caused by their loss of the knowledge of God they consider peace, and organise for it rites and ceremonies, which admit foul sin; besides that the empty idols are no restraint upon perjury. But we have knowledge of the true God (xv. 1), and are not led into folly by the devices of men's art to worship dead images. Such a fool is the potter, who out of clay makes vessels for clean uses and the contrary (he decides which), and out of this same clay mouldeth a god — though he was himself earth but lately, and into earth will shortly return: he is full of anxiety, not about the shortness of his term, but in matching himself against the goldsmith's work, as if life were a plaything, or a fair for making gain: he beyond other idolaters must know that he sinneth. The vermin-worshippers of Egypt were further gone than all in the folly of idolatry (xv. 14): they made their gods, not only the senseless idols of the nations, but also creatures that in themselves are hateful and void of beauty. Hence they were worthily punished through these same abominations which they worshipped. But (xvi. 2) instead of this plague of vermin, through which the Egyptians came to loathe their necessary food, the people of God received benefits in the matter of food, — quails of rare flavour to satisfy dainty appetite: having suffered want just enough to know what the torment of the enemy would be. In conclusion, the remark often made in reference to the literary style of St. Paul, may be applied also to the Book of Wisdom, - that what is in form a digression will be found, as regards the matter, to be an advance in the course of the argument. GENERAL INDEX For Books of the Bible, or any portions of them, see above, Literary Index to the For Literary Forms (Prophecy,' 'Epic,' 'Lyric,' &c.), or subdivisions of these literature: 432-6. Accession Hymns: 160 and (Table) 501. | Association as an effect in Prophetic Acts (or advancing Stages) as a mode Address, Literature of: 439 and Book Alternation as a mode of Lyric move- Augmenting as a mode of Lyric move- Authorship not an element in literary Ballad Dance as a primitive literary 500. Benedictions: 160 and (Table) 501. Analytic Imagination in Wisdom: Burden: 328 and (Table) 508. 305. Anthems, National: 142 and (Table) Antiphonal structure of 'Deborah's Call (Prophetic): 343 and (Table) 509. Ceremonial Worship a prototype of Em- Song: 132- of Ritual Psalms, 161. Antithesis (or Contrast) as mode of Lyric development: 192, 91, 97, 150-2. Characterised: Of Nations, 366, Chorus, Reciting, in Solomon's Song 408, 411-2-Prophetic, 368, 374. Development, Lyric, 186. (See Move- Climax and Crescendo as devices of 505. Colophon in Ecclesiasticus: 291 - in 367-8. Concentration as a mode of Lyric move- Divine Intervention in Job, 22-4, 34-5. ment: 130, 145. Contrast (or Antithesis) as a mode of Couplet and Triplet as figures of Par- Creation, Account of in Genesis as ex- Curse, The, in Job: 6, 31 the Primi- - Elegies: 156 and (Table) 500. Cycle in Prophecy: 425-8 and (Table) Emendation, Textual: 57 (note) --com- Description as a Cardinal Point of Lit- Envelope Figure: 53-4-compare 69. erature: 105, 107-11. Description, Scenic (in the Rhapsody): 368; compare 374-80, 386, 399, 400, 70, 77-80, 150-1 - Enveloping Vision: Epic as one of the six fundamental lite- |